Syrup for Packing

Prepare light or medium syrup. I prefer light syrup. Simply heat water and sweetener in a sauce pan until sugar dissolves.

Sugar syrup

Light – 2 cups sugar to 1-quart water

Medium -3 cups sugar to 1-quart water

Honey Syrup

You can also make a syrup with honey if you don't want to use processed sugar. Honey is quickly becoming my favorite alternative to sugar. Our family is on a mission to cut lots and lots of white sugar out of our kitchen!

light - 1 1/2 cups honey to 4 cups water

medium - 2 cups honey to 4 cups water

No Syrup??

Did you know? You don't even have to add any sugar if you don't want to. You can just can in water. Sugar does help the fruit to maintain color and texture, but it is not a preservative in this case.

Procedure

Start by preparing jars,and get water in your canner heating. (see Water Bath Canning for full directions)

Prepare light or medium syrup. I prefer a light syrup for canning peaches. Simply heat water and syrup in a pot until sugar dissolves. I like to do this right in a tea pot.

Peel your peaches

Do this by dipping peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute. I use my blancher and do 5 or so peaches at a time.

Immediately remove the peaches to a sink or bowl with cold water to stop the cooking.

Slice the peaches in half and throw away the pit. You'll notice a 'seam' down one side of your peach. If you slice around the diameter of the peach following this line you will be able to pluck the pit right out.

Skins should slip right off in your hands. If your peach is a little green it will be harder to skin. you can just use a paring knife for the stubborn spots.

I like to can peaches in halves but you may also cut smaller if you wish. Pack peach halves with cavity side down. They pack better and you will fit more in a jar. If you have wide mouth jars it makes it easier to place the peaches in the bottom of the jar cavity side down.

To prevent browning of peaches you will want to slice the peaches and cover quickly with syrup. Another way to prevent browning is to treat with ascorbic or citric acid. This should be available in the canning sections at the grocery store or the hardware store. Follow the instructions on the package.

When canning peaches you can either raw or hot pack. It is up to you. The difference is the number of peaches you can fit in the jar and possible space in the jar.

IF you hot pack (heat the peaches before packing your jars) you will be able to fit more into the jar. If you raw pack, it is just a quicker way to get the food packed and preserved. Your choice!

Raw pack~ I prefer to raw pack and fill one jar at a time as I peel, pit and slice. I then immediately cover the peaches with hot syrup and place in hot water in canner to keep warm while I prepare the next jar. This prevents peaches from browning.

To Hot pack ~ slice peaches into a pot of syrup. When you have enough fruit prepared for your jars, bring to boil and turn off heat. Fill jars with hot fruit and cooking liquid, leaving 1/2-inch head space.

Questions from my inbox.

HI Sharon...Thank you so much for this site! It's very helpful!

I
was just canning peaches, and I noticed they were leaking a bit of
juice. They popped and sealed, but the jars are sticky. I haven't
actually tested the lids, because they have only been out of the canner a
couple of hours, but they are concave.

I looked on the USDA web
site, and they say it's fine to loose some liquid. A couple of my jars
lost enough that the tops of a few peaches are not covered. Should I be
concerned?

Thanks so much!

Hi Jenny, yes sometimes the liquid will leak out and you will have low levels of juice and as you found out that is ok. It should only be a mild loss though. If you've lost more than half the liquid you should refrigerate the fruit.

I've read that the peaches above the liquid may brown, but I've never had that happen.

If you've lost liquid you might want to just put those jars to the front of your cupboard so they get used up first. That is what I usually do. Remember the liquid is below halfway refrigerate your jar and eat it up.

To lessen liquid loss next time. Try leaving your jars to rest in your canner for 5 minutes or so after the water stops boiling. Then lift your jars out of the water and leave on the rack for another 5 minutes or so. This just slows down the cooling process in the jars and may help.

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